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Saturday, 5 February 2011

A self-professed Mexican Mafia member turned state's witness testified Wednesday he wore a wire and recorded a gang shot-caller admitting he ordered a shooting at a crowded Pico Rivera pizza parlor that left three men dead.

Raymond Cuevas, a two-strike convict who received parole for felony vandalism and was released in an attempt by authorities to get a confession from the defendant, said he wore the wire seven times in conversations with Rudy 'Chapo' Ruiz, 32, of Whittier.

'He told me over the phone that he let somebody have it,' said Cuevas, who was incarcerated at the time but was working with the Operation Safe Jail, an investigative gang unit within the county's jail system.

During one of the recordings, Cuevas said, Ruiz told him he 'got a couple of guys together to do the shooting at the pizza parlor.'

But, according to Cuevas, the gang leader believed the parlor was hosting a party for members of the rival Mongol motorcycle gang.

Cuevas testified that Ruiz told him he 'let some Mongols have it.' However, under cross-examination, Cuevas said Ruiz never mentioned the Mongols by name, just that a motorcycle gang was being targeted.